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Witness says Hadzic had military, political power, was against coexistence

Autor: half
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Oct 19 (Hina) - Wartime Croatian Serb rebel leader Goran Hadzic had political and military authority in the Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK) statelet, he appointed generals and ordered attacks on Croatian forces, he was against Croat-Serb coexistence and dismissed anyone who negotiated with the Croatian authorities, prosecution witness Veljko Dzakula said at Hadzic's trial before the Hague war crimes tribunal on Friday.

A RSK deputy prime minister at the time relevant to the indictment, Dzakula said he was part of the local Serb faction that wanted to negotiate with the Croatian authorities, to which Hadzic, the then RSK president, objected, because he did not believe in coexistence between Croats and Serbs.

In 1992, Hadzic did not support the return of either Croats or Serbs or any coexistence, he said.

Dzakula said Hadzic publicly advocated the Vance plan that stopped the open war in Croatia in 1992, but added that he was not willing to implement the part referring to demilitarisation.

The witness said Hadzic advocated the argument that Croats genetically hated Serbs and that the Serb and the Croat population should be relocated according to who lived where before World War Two.

Asked by the prosecution if he agreed with that argument, Dzakula said he did not as it would have caused new conflicts, but added that such messages fell on fertile ground as Serb and Croats grew increasingly apart and afraid.

Speaking of Hadzic's activities as the RSK supreme military commander, Dzakula said that after a Croatian military operation at Maslenica, Hadzic ordered a tank attack on the towns of Novska and Nova Gradiska.

I asked the military commander, General Mile Novakovic, why he issued that order. He said he didn't have to discuss that with me because Hadzic was his commander in chief and that he was carrying out his orders. Then I called Hadzic, who told me we were surrounded by Ustasha forces which would attack any minute, even though I had heard from UNPROFOR and our local commanders that there was no danger, said the witness.

Hadzic's counsel tried to tie the local Serb rebellion against the authorities in Zagreb in 1991 to traumas dating back to WW2.

Dzakula said his parents were detained at the Ustasha concentration camp Jasenovac and that their families were killed, agreeing that a similar fate of many Serb families influenced the decision of local Serbs not to accept Croatia's declaration of independence.

The trial will resume next week.

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